This story was originally posted in December 2016. To learn more about some of SA’s marine life, check out our stories about baby marine animals, octopuses, and other weird-looking sea creatures. Rays usually come in to feed with a rising tide and leave behind a circular footprint once they have finished.When feeding and resting, stingrays bury their bodies in the sand but leave the barb out to protect themselves from predators.Rays are slimy because they are covered in a mucous layer that helps protect them from disease and wound infection.Some rays have highly adapted eyes and can actually see colour.
Some rays swim by oscillating their body to move forward, while others flap their pectoral fins and appear to be flying underwater.Steve was a great Australian conservationist and died way too young. The poisonous dagger-like stinger killed him, and his death was most likely almost instantaneous. Steve Irwin died in 2006 after he accidentally got stung directly into the heart by a short-tail stingray. Stingrays can breathe while feeding thanks to spiracles – vestigial gill slits behind their eyes. The answer to that question is: No, it wasn’t a manta ray.Males have two elongated appendages known as claspers whereas females don’t have these. The difference between male and females is their pelvic fins.Stingrays have been around longer than dinosaurs.SA’s marine parks are top spots to see stingrays, especially at Coffin Bay within Thorny Passage Marine Park, Encounter Marine Park and at Neptune Islands Marine Park, as well as the shallow waters of Barker Inlet in the Adelaide Dolphin Sanctuary. The most popular species spotted in South Australian waters are the smooth ray, southern eagle ray, southern fiddler ray and coastal stingaree. There are about 630 species of rays worldwide. If a stingray does accidentally sting you, pour hot water over the sting to ease the pain and follow first aid advice.
Place your feet firmly on the ground and slide your feet slowly through the sand, which will safely encourage any rays to move away. So keep your eyes peeled or try the stingray shuffle. Learn more about manta ray at the NOAA giant manta ray webpage. If you accidentally step on a ray, the frightened fish can flip up its tail and sting you with its barb. Summertime beach walk on your mind? On your next stroll be careful of rays feeding and resting in warm shallow waters. Never threaten or corner a ray, and always keep an eye out for their tail – and never touch the barb on the end of it.
So take lots of photos and enjoy watching them gliding through the water – but from afar. They are curious and playful animals when there are divers and snorkellers around, and if they feel threatened their first instinct is to swim away.īut as with all marine life, people must respect stingrays’ personal space. Fear has been instilled in people since the tragic death of Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin in 2006, but it is actually rare to die from a ray injury. The oddly adorable stingray is misunderstood by many.
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